Rodgers Delighted With New Attacking Trio, Confident Ahead Of Tough Swansea Game

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Liverpool host Swansea on Monday and would be looking for their second successive win.

The two have met this season before in the League Cup and Liverpool won the exciting game with two late goals from Mario Balotelli and Dejan Lovren. The Reds would have gained confidence from a hard earned victory at Burnley. but would be wary of the Swansea side that has done so well over this season. Brendan Rodgers spoke about the tough challenge against his former team

“They are all difficult challenges, like you saw yesterday at Burnley. It’s a very difficult game. I know Swansea very well.

“We had a very good performance against them in the cup earlier on in the season, at home. We know it will be a tough match. But our performance levels have been getting better.

“The spirit and mentality in the team is still strong. This is a really difficult period of games in a short space of time, so we’ll look to go and put in a performance that hopefully merits the three points.”

“Garry Monk has done very well. We’re in contact fairly regularly and I spoke to him the other day. It’s a well-established way of working and way of playing.The players that have come in have done well, they have got some real threats. I know young Gylfi Sigurdsson very well and [Wilfried] Bony has obviously got goals. The combination of Bony and Sigurdsson is as good as any in the league – they combine very well and both want to score goals.

“They’ll be a threat and they’ll come to Anfield and want to get the victory that they didn’t in the cup competition. Because of the close nature of the games in this period, they are all difficult.

“But we now have two games at home after a really good result for us yesterday. We’ll arrive into this game and hopefully continue in that mantra and get another three points.”

Raheem Sterling struck the game’s decisive blow, netting on 62 minutes to settle the contest with his third goal in as many matches; however, the strike was crafted by a magnificent piece of play by Philippe Coutinho.

Liverpool scored through Raheem Sterling against Burnley, but it was Coutinho’s super lay-off that set up the 20 year old. Rodgers heaped praise on the Brazilian as well as Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert.

“Adam and Phil are playing in that little role [behind the striker], which suits them perfectly,” said the boss.

“They’ve got wonderful feet and so they are very good in tight spaces. The key is the work-rate, as well – they press the ball well and work very, very hard.

“Raheem and anyone with that type of pace will always stretch teams and always make defenders think.

“He’s a different type – he’s not your natural No.9, but for me it’s more about the position rather than the player for the team to function well. That pace in the team is very important for us.

“Rickie Lambert was important for us when he came on at Burnley. He could hold the ball up in that period of the game when we needed it, so it’s good to have the options to be able to put in that role.”

The Reds boss also said that there won’t be very many changes in the squad following Brad Jones’ injury and was happy with Mignolet’s contribution at Burnley and said that the clean sheet would have boosted his confidence.